2004 was my second year, and one of the most distressing differences
between 2003 and 2004 was the almost daily lack of toilet paper in the
portapotties... I found it remarkable the first year how well the portapotties were taken care of, including ample toilet paper. However in 2004 it was a "given" that you searched 5-10 potties before you found tp. Plus without toilet paper, perhaps people got less considerate of keeping
them clean.

Considering that the cause was likely a shortage at the beginning,
leading people to steal the paper for themselves, which exacerbated the
situation, the solution might be to supply an abundance at the beginning
of the Burn, so people feel generally assured that they will not be left
high and dry when they go.

We could have a secondary stock of TP that is delivered frequently to
all portapotties by some burner volunteers (and thus not wait for the
toilet cleaners to show up and supply). I would bet that the perception
would be created quickly that all is well in the portapotties and there
is no need to steal the paper for oneself...

The cost of such secondary supply should be marginal compared with the
huge benefit to the community. Please...
JW

At large scale events this seems to be a universal problem. I've learned to keep a roll of TP with me in my backpack or flight pack to avoid the mad stall search...it's saved me several times now. With 35,000 people using those units and servicing only happening once or twice per day, I think it's unreasonable to expect them to remain fully stocked with TP at all times. I may come out on the minority side as people weigh in on this...but so be it.

Perhaps this would be another item for Robbidobbs to add to her excellent portapottie educational efforts.....respect the supplies and use only what you need. Meanwhile with a regional event coming up you've reminded me that I need to stock up on my private camping supply for this year. Thanks.

K-IV
~~~~
Thank you for over 7 years of eplaya memories. I have asked Emily Sparkle to delete my account and I am gone. Goodbye and Goodluck to all of you! I will miss you!

The consensus on this after the event was that there was a deliberate attempt to sabatoge the JotS by stealing the toilet paper and throwing it in the JotS so that it would plug up the hose when the crew came around to clean it.

The first solution is to carry your own roll of Single ply with you at all times, and have a few to gift as well.

The solution to the 2nd is murkier, but if you happen to find someone doing this next year, Robbidobbs and others would like to know.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

2) If you have a problem with the way the portapotties are stocked, volunteer and *do* something about the problem your own damn self. I'm sure there's some hard-working folks out there who would appreciate the help.

3) Could this get moved to some other, more appropriate forum?

You want someone to wipe for you too? Ah, sorry, that one got away from me.

I just love it when someone volunteers "someone" to solve a problem.
That shit just warms my cockles. Thanks guys for piping in.

The obvious assumption is that normal, everyday participants need education about not stealing toilet paper. This, dear friends, was not the problem. The problem was deliberate, malicious theft. Whole banks of toilet paper was stolen, then materialized in the camodes in the next block down the street. This phenomenon of TP Transmigration occured all over the city. The culprits were so blantant, that the vendor's supervisor said to me: It was as if they are waiting in ambush for me to stock it.

Do YOU want to do SOMETHING about this issue? I'm all ears.

Kinetic, you know better than to volunteer others to do something.
Thanks Fishy for keeping on top of this.

We were practially on top of a bank of potties last year, and yes, JOTS would come through and ten minutes later: no paper. It happened almost every day. It was rather too coordinated to be simple theft, it seemed damned intentional. The exception was of course, the morning after the burn. Either "they" didn't want to get up early, or the fact that I was cleaning up beer bottles, glowsticks and condoms as JOTS arrived scared "them" off.

robbidobbs wrote:Do YOU want to do SOMETHING about this issue? I'm all ears.

My solution involves loaning infrared gear to the chupacabra polizia and allowing them to ambush the sumbitches. But if it was happening in broad daylight, plus any attempt at vigiliante justice is likely to leave us standing in it. (It being the JotS.) Restraining order of Sabatogesourus rex and pals also sounds good.

Okay--this is all just hot air, think of it as brainstorming, getting some stupid high risk high energy ideas on the table as a prelude to opening up our brains for something better.

Robbidobbs, just how aggressive should we be in telling participants why things were so sh*tty last year?

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

How much toilet paper do they leave in a portapotty when it gets serviced? I could imagine having a toilet paper roll holder, bolted to the potty wall, that locks with a padlock and holds 1 or 2 rolls in place. This would not only make it harder to steal the paper or drop the entire roll in the potty; it would also keep the toilet paper from ending up on the icky dirty floor.

Of course, this would require Johnny on the Spot to let us bolt things to their portapotties. Also, it would require making these things. In theory, though, it seems like a nice idea.

theCryptofishist wrote:My solution involves loaning infrared gear to the chupacabra polizia and allowing them to ambush the sumbitches. Robbidobbs, just how aggressive should we be in telling participants why things were so sh*tty last year?

I like that idea a LOT, Fishy. Be as aggressive as you feel comfortable with.

Let's use an analogy of a private house party. There's this guy who comes in, and during the course of the evening, dumps glass down the garbage disposal, throws potato salad into the pool and squishes cigarettes on the waterbed. Wouldn't that kind of piss you off? You do have the right to throw this bum out before he does more damage. BM is about self-reliance, and we shouldn't be expecting some elusive "someone else" to handle the problem.

According to JotS, the crime was predominantly committed under the cover of darkness, so the night-vision goggles would be way cool.

Yeah, I think that we want to find some peeps that are willing to spend part of a night in ambush. We can move it from bank to bank of pottys and take pics and then go up and confront them? Turn them over to the LEOs if we have to. I think that there are alot of people who'd be interested in that.

I just hope they don't have an even worse plan B. But knowing who they are would be a big step in the right direction.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

The trick is not to plan on catching the perp, the trick is to entertain oneself and hopefully others while you whyle away the evening and chance upon him/her/it. Keeping an eye on the pottie banks is certainly a reasonable activity for those camps that face the pottie doors. Last year I lived in LOS from the 3:00 bank, and it was a really good experience for learning traffic patterns. But alas, I sleep at night, and the TP had disappeared by morn.

Here's an idea for pottie-art:
Pottie Carolling

If any singers are interested in puting poo-etry to music, please let me know.

Grizelda wrote:How much toilet paper do they leave in a portapotty when it gets serviced? I could imagine having a toilet paper roll holder, bolted to the potty wall, that locks with a padlock and holds 1 or 2 rolls in place. This would not only make it harder to steal the paper or drop the entire roll in the potty; it would also keep the toilet paper from ending up on the icky dirty floor.

Of course, this would require Johnny on the Spot to let us bolt things to their portapotties. Also, it would require making these things. In theory, though, it seems like a nice idea.

To answer your question, 1-2 rolls. The existing fixture has the ability to be padlocked, and I've lobbied to JotS that they budget in one padlock per unit. This concept looks good on paper, but then logistics reality jumps in: you've increased the servicing time by about a minute at best, plus you've increased the error factor (losing the key, etc). Because of last year's TP issue, I'm hoping that they're rethinking their stand on cost vs benefits.

This doesn't solve the problem of the roll being emptied onto the floor however, but it would eliminate the TP transmigration phenomenon.

All locks can be fitted the one key cut. I have 10 padlock in the family we each have a single key for all of them. Surely a lock company would be glad to sell a mess of custom locks. The ones for the pots would not have to be to big. If some one is going to wreak some thing. Let it be the lock and not the holder or pot it's self.